Hickory Nut Gorge Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Well, at least I didn't drown. I had some opportunities to draft, but didn't manage to do it.

I need a swim coach! And I need to get more OWS time. LOTS more.

T1 felt pretty fast. I did put on socks, but that went very well (about 5 seconds total for the socks). My only problem was that without glasses or contacts, I did briefly turn down the wrong row to get my bike, but that was very quickly corrected. In a bigger race, though, it could have been trouble. I need to mark my spot and remember it better. The big thing was that I forgot to put on my race belt. Apparently nobody cared. (I put it on during T2.) I'm guessing that in a bigger race this would have resulted in a penalty.

I did the flying mount with the shoes held in place with rubber bands. It went fine, though I'm not sure whether it saved all that much time. Maybe a little. I need to keep working on getting my feet into the shoes faster. I lose too much momentum while I'm doing it. The fact that the first climb started about 100 yards after T1 didn't help...

Mark my spot more clearly. Put my race belt on!

This was the leg where I worked the hardest. That might not have been the smartest move, since I'm faster on the run, but then again, with such a high percentage of the total time being on the bike, you really can gain a lot of time there. And I passed loads of people on the bike, but very few on the run. (But of course that could be because all of the people that I WOULD have passed on the run, I already passed on the bike. Man, this whole pacing thing is hard!)

I didn't drink enough. I felt it on the run. I need to learn to drink while I'm working hard on the bike (climbing, in particular).

T2 was very fast. I did the flying dismount, ran to my spot, helmet off, shoes and race belt on, and go. I think I passed about 4 or 5 people in T2.

I probably should have taken a swig of something.

This was a pretty awful run for me. The day before, I ran at a 7:15 pace after a pretty hard bike with very little trouble, and felt that I would easily do that or better during the race. Boy was I wrong. Splits have not been posted, but I think I was around 8:00 for the first mile, and maybe around 7:30-7:45 for the other two. I really went too hard on the bike, I think, and I was feeling a bit unmotivated at the beginning of the run for some reason. Not sure why. I picked it up for the second and third miles (which isn't saying much as it was all downhill after 1.5 miles), but these still were not very fast. Also, I had a little more in the tank at the end, and it really bugs me when that happens, though I keep reminding myself that this race was a lark, and I don't want to screw up my marathon training for it. So I guess the run was OK, but in a race that I really care about, I sure would like to go a LOT LOT faster! Only one person passed me, and I passed maybe 5 or 6 people. I think if I had known how close I was to the top of my age group (it was hard to tell because of the time trial start), I would have found the motivation to run faster, but that's a sad excuse. I should be able to find that motivation regardless. Oh well. The run felt bad, but I made to the end...

Run faster.

A little walking, a little stretching, eating.


(1) the fact that I can't swim; (2) stressful morning getting there; (3) unprepared for the toughness of the bike course


My first tri -- there were a lot of things to improve, including some stupid mistakes, but really, how can I complain??? There's lots of stuff I'll do better next time. But it was a blast and I'm hooked, 100%. It was a really fun first effort.